One massive melody buffet

In an interaction, DJ Axwell speaks about his upcoming performance in the city for Sensation White, the controversies surrounding the EDM genre and the “special ingredient” he mixes for his music

In a career that has taken him from the Swedish underground to the Madison Square Garden, New York and the UK alike, DJ Axwell’s Midas-like touch has seen Axel Hedfors rise as an idol of modern house music. The DJ will be performing at Sensation White in Hyderabad on Saturday. Ahead of his performance, here are some excerpts from an interview with the DJ. Read on…

Tell us about your participation in 'Sensation White'.
I just want to show my fans what’s been getting me excited recently and throw some more familiar tracks in there, too. I’m putting together a lot of thought into the visual artistry of my set.

How did you get inclined towards electronic music?
Sebastian Ingrosso mentored me through the early stages of my career until I became a formidable star in the EDM circuit. Plus, my early influences included a lot of Prodigies and, in fact, my track “I Found U” was inspired by them.

A lot of people are quick to criticise EDM as being overly commercial. Some even call it out-of-the-laptop-music. Please comment.

It’s hard to say, we can never win in a discussion like that. That criticism has been aimed at us for a long time, ever since the days of Swedish House Mafia. But, don’t forget that before Swedish House Mafia, we made music in our bedrooms for 10 years, which was by today’s standards probably quite underground. We’ve been doing this for a long time, so we were quite sad and disappointed when we started to receive criticism from people in the same group as us.

Back in the day when we had success as Swedish House Mafia, we were sad. We were like “why were people attacking us for doing well because we just kept making the music that we wanted?” We never adapted to be mainstream; it was the mainstream that discovered us. For us, we were always wondering why people within music attack others within the scene, its one big question mark for us, even to this day.

It’s easy to take for granted how people who aren’t totally familiar with dance music see it. Advancement of technology in music always comes with its critics and dance music relies on these advancements so much. Sometimes it’s frustrating to hear misconceptions, but at the same time, it’s our job to show people how much work goes into it. We need to lead by example rather than complain about it.

Tell us about your journey.
I want to be remembered as an artiste that made people feel things and evolved in an honest and exciting way. So long as people remember the music, I’m happy. Everyone has that “thing” that they’re good at. For most of my life, music has been that “thing” for me. As time progressed, it became obvious that I might be able to do it full time, and I’ve worked night and day to make sure that is the case.

What is your “special ingredient” that you mix in your music?
The constant battle is to combine two very distinct sounds. On one hand there’s a functional track that works on the dance floor and, on the other hand, there’s a track with ambient sounds and melodies that fans need to remember after 10 years. I think all genres are picking up; it’s like this massive buffet now. For me personally, my music will go in all directions because there is beauty in every genre. A big trend now is bringing melody and harmony into the EDM sound.

What goes through your mind when you mix a track?
My solo work is more of a vent or an outlet for music that feels more personal to me.

What are your future projects?
We just released FLAGS. Loads of touring and new singles are coming up.